David Yost (Columbus, Parma, Franklin: ob-gyn, felony, attorneys)

[WRnative]

Ohio Attorney General David Yost is a champion, even head promoter, of Ohio's new restrictive abortion laws.


In his effort to defend these laws, Yost went a giant leap too far in spreading deceit across the nation about the impact of Ohio's abortion restrictions on young teenage girls, even tweeners, who are the victims of rape. Yost repeatedly told national media that reports of a 10-year-old Ohio girl requiring an abortion in Indiana following a rape were likely false, and offered no apology or a detailed comment about his wrongful statements when a perpetrator actually was arrested for raping the child.


Most importantly, Yost refuses to discuss honestly the impact of the laws he has championed on victims of rape, not even young girls. He hasn't (yet?) promoted an amendment to Ohio laws to permit abortions for victims of rape, not even if the victims are young girls.



<<Yost, before appearing on national cable news, should have listened more attentively for whispers, because they weren't hard to find, especially in the city in which Yost works.

The Ohio Capital Journal, for example, today noted it called a single department, the Columbus police, and found there were 59 reports of sexual assault against girls 15 and younger since March 15, and that one of them involved a 10-year-old girl.

Yost could have done the same and stopped himself before going on Fox News to decry the tale as false, because if he did he would have found out that Columbus police were directly made aware of the rape and pregnancy by Franklin County Children Services on June 22 and that everything the Indiana abortion provider said and the reporter wrote were true.

In a statement today following the news of the suspect's confession and arrest, Yost said simply, "We rejoice anytime a child rapist is taken off the streets."

Rep. Jeff Crossman, the Democrat running this November against Yost in the Ohio Attorney General's race, told Scene "This story is horrifying, and it highlights the practical realities that are confronting parents and minors in this state. We knew this was not a hypothetical situation and shame on Dave Yost for suggesting that this didn't happen without even fact-checking. This demonstrates how incompetent his office is: He's willing to make political points instead of doing the actual work.">>


https://www.clevescene.com/news/man-...ation-39315465


https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/13/us/oh...ion/index.html


Yost claims that the 10-year-old rape victim legally could have had an abortion in Ohio, but his political opponent in the upcoming general election disagrees with Yost's claim.


<<Yost said on Fox News that Ohio's law also allows an exception for a medical emergency and "this young girl, if she exists and if this horrible thing actually happened to her – breaks my heart to think about it – she did not have to leave Ohio to find treatment."


Democrat Jeff Crossman, Yost's opponent in the AG's race, said the attorney general misrepresented the law and that the exceptions are so narrowly tailored that doctors will be reluctant to risk a felony charge and losing their medical licenses. "He doesn't care about the facts.">>


https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/...t/10048250002/


Even if a pregnancy of a 10-year-old might be deemed a medical emergency, IF such an exception actually is in Ohio law and is applicable in this case, and IF a doctor would be willing to risk his career performing such an abortion, would the pregnancy of a 15-year-old be deemed a medical emergency? The reality, ignored by Yost, is NO Ohio doctor was willing to perform an abortion on this 10-year-old girl given the lack of clarity in the new restrictive Ohio abortion law which Yost eagerly imposed on Ohioans.


Larger fundamental questions exist about banning abortions for rape victims. Why should any woman of any age who is the victim or rape should be forced to carry that baby with the inherent risk to her physical and mental health? Does the state have an obligation to provide for the economic and social needs of a unwanted child of rape, whether or not the mother retains custody of the child after giving birth?


<<The girl told police Fuentes was responsible for her pregnancy, Huhn testified. Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Daniel Meyer said she had recently turned 10, meaning she was probably impregnated at 9 years old....


In 2020, there were 52 abortions among children 15 or younger in Ohio, accounting for .3% of the 20,605 abortions performed that year, according to the Ohio Department of Health....


Meanwhile, Ohio's GOP-controlled General Assembly is likely to make its abortion ban even earlier than six weeks, with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. Lawmakers are crafting language on when abortions would be banned, but past proposals barred the procedure after fertilization, which could prohibit some birth control.>>


https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...n/10049383002/


If Yost actually believes that a child impregnated by rape should be entitled to a legal abortion in Ohio, why isn't he promoting a clarifying amendment to Ohio law specifying at what ages victims of rape would be entitled to a legal abortion in Ohio? Considering statutory rape laws, wouldn't most, if not all, impregnated children be deemed a rape victim? So why not just pass an amendment saying any woman of a certain age or younger would be eligible for a legal abortion in Ohio?

[WRnative]

Here's Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's defense of Ohio's abortion restrictions imposed by Gov. Mike DeWine, Yost, and the Republican legislature on Ohio minors who are the victims of rape.


<<Yost also said that the state’s abortion restrictions include an exemption for medical emergencies, broader than to save the mother’s life, that could have been used in the 10-year-old’s case and allowed her to obtain an abortion in Ohio. He said abortions are allowed if there is a substantial likelihood “that a major bodily function will be permanently impaired” by carrying a pregnancy to term. Because medical complications are “substantially amplified when you talk about a very young mother,” he said it’s possible the 10-year-old could have obtained an exemption.>>


https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/...-abortion.html


Questions:


1) How would the minor's parents or guardians obtain an exemption? By petitioning a court? Who will pay for the cost of obtaining a petition, likely in the thousands of dollars? How long will it take to obtain an exemption, especially given the need to obtain the abortion ASAP for health reasons? What happens if a anti-abortion judge rejects the exemption request? Should the parents and guardians be expected to pay for an appeal?


2) Yost seems to concede that perhaps a 10-year-old could obtain an exemption to allow an abortion. What about a 15-year-old or a 17-year-old? If Yost believes an exemption should be permitted for a minor of a certain age, and all pregnant minors of a certain age likely are at least victims of statutory rape, why doesn't Yost just propose a law exempting minors of a certain age from the abortion restrictions???


3) If a court exemption is needed to allow a minor to obtain an abortion, certainly doctors will need to testify. Could some anti-abortion prosecutor charge a testifying physician with perjury? So a cautious doctor may want to consult with an attorney before testifying in an abortion exemption request case. Who will compensate the doctors for their time and possibly consequential legal expenses? Does Yost, let alone the majority of Ohioans really want doctors to spend their time and encounter the stress of attempting to obtain an abortion exemption for a minor?



4) Does Yost care that Ohio's restrictive abortion laws are apt to create a shortage of OB-GYN specialists in Ohio, to the detriment of all Ohio women? See post 23 here:


https://www.city-data.com/forum/ohio/...bortion-3.html


IMO, it seems almost certain that neither Yost, nor Gov. Mike DeWine, will agree to debate their Democratic opponents under any circumstances in 2022, to the great detriment of the democratic process in Ohio.


BTW, Yost's Democratic Party opponent for attorney general, Parma State Rep. Jeff Crossman, disagrees with Yost's assertion that Ohio's abortion law clearly provides an exemption for a 10-year-old rape victim. See above-linked cleveland.com article.



<<
The Democratic Attorneys General Association released a statement after the arrest that accused Yost of spreading “lies” about the 10-year-old girl, and the Democratic Party’s candidate for attorney general, State Rep. Jeff Crossman of Parma, issued a statement that said Yost should be “ashamed – not only for calling a 10-year-old rape victim a liar but for helping to create the circumstances that prevented her from getting the critical healthcare she needed in the first place.”


Crossman noted that Ohio’s new ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy doesn’t exempt minors or victims of rape or incest. He also called on Yost to “immediately apologize to this young girl, her family and all Ohioans and start working to roll back this harmful policy that helped make a terrible tragedy even worse.”>>

[Natural510]

He is scum…endemic of the current political party system where there is no accountability for words or actions, or even doing the basics of one’s job to which they were elected, because they check the boxes on one or two issues for enough sycophants who vote.

[ohioaninsc]

Yost is pure evil...the scum needs to be voted out